


30 Chapters of Learning how to Love

by Lyka_Mandia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 30 Days of Writing, Angst, Fluff, M/M, November Writer's Prompts, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possible smut in the future?, Prompts stitched into a semi story, Rating May Change, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-28 14:53:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8450686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyka_Mandia/pseuds/Lyka_Mandia
Summary: Keith is hotheaded, temperamental, easily aggravated and has a tendency to stick his nose into business that doesn't concern him, and if he was suddenly cursed by the space witch herself to become calm and dull, he would still find a way to confront the enemy and attempt to claw their eyes out. He is the embodiment of "not backing down", which makes him loyal.He's so loyal, that sometimes it's hard to discern whether or not he's loyal to people or cause. If he's even capable of putting others above a clause.





	1. Time Like Liquid

**Author's Note:**

> Notes at the end, lists the November Prompts. 
> 
> This is my first fanfic for Voltron. If the characters seem out of character, please tell me. This story is basically 30 days of writing, it's prompts that will be stringed together into a semi coherent story about these two. Also, I'm sorry, I don't have a beta for this story. So please bear with any grammatical/punctual issues.
> 
> Also bear with me if my science is wrong as well.

——————————————————————————————————

> _Time is Liquid._
> 
> _One moment is no more important than any other_
> 
> _And all moments quickly run away._
> 
> _-Kurt Vonnegut_

——————————————————————————————————

Time is relative to observers.

Here, things might be moving normally. Pidge is probably tinkering with her equipment, mentally shrieking, “ _eureka!_ ” whenever she solves a complex equation none of the other paladins would _ever_ —in millenias—comprehend. Hunk is probably in the kitchen trying to perfect a dish; or discussing about the cultural preferences between Altean and Human cuisine with Coran. Shiro is probably speaking with Allura—they seem so close these days. And Keith is most likely in the training room, cutting down holograms.

Everything is normal _here_.

Earth however...

The concept is called the _Theory of Relativity_ ; time dilation. Simply put, gravity affects how time moves. The heavier the force is exerted, the slower time is. The opposite is also true. The lighter the force of gravity has, the faster time is.

Back on earth. If an orbit is greater than 5900 miles, the gravity of a planet is no longer weighing it down, thus it will speed up time. Below that height, the velocity would be stronger and so, time slows. The Castle of Lions, is nowhere _near_ Earth. Time might be normal here, but back on Earth? How many years have passed? Who would have died? How many people who were once friends— _family_ even—be nothing more than corpses in a coffin?  

Lance has Pidge to thank for this knowledge. During one of her ramblings with Coran, he overheard this little _detail_ about time. When he approached her and demanded for the specifics on how much time would have passed on Earth, she refused to tell him. She said it would hurt him. Even if she hasn’t told him, even if she refrains from telling him the truth. He knows it’s bad and the truth was something that was best left unknown. But it doesn’t mean he wasn’t allowed to be upset. Because, quiznak’s sake, he _certainly_ is.

Currently, the boy is curled up on the steps of the lifeless ballroom. Lights off and nothing but the sound of engines purring accompanying him. How do people normally cope with crushing despair? Call a family member maybe? No, that’s not an option. His mother is star systems away. There is no one, not even a reason for him to fight, why did he sign up for this? The end goal of defeating Zarkon and taking down an entire _empire_ seems so far away. It is most likely a childish wish. A _dream_ that will never come true.

Lance buried his head into his arms, as if trying to hide in the vast expanse of this lonely space. He just wants to go home.

“Lance?” A familiar voice cuts through the air. It was Keith. “What are you doing here? Sitting in the dark?” He asks, his voice somewhat jovial.

It was just like him to be amused by this sight. The paladin jolts into a proper seating position, rubbing at his face. “Oh! Nothing!” He says cheerfully. His gaze meets the red paladin, oddly enough, an expression he had never expected Keith to wear for _him_ , was displayed on the mullet head’s face. A sad laugh bubbles out of Lance’s throat as he says, “I know I’m gorgeous to look at but can you stop staring? It’s rude.”

“Lance...” Keith begins. He takes a few steps up the ballroom stairs and stops once his eyes were at level with the blue paladin. “You’re... were you _crying_?”

“What?! PFFFFFFF.” Lance waves a dismissive hand at Keith as he says, “Nah! I was just laughing about that one conversation Hunk had with Coran!” Keith’s just standing there, staring at him. Incredulous and unconvinced.

“Which conversation?”

“Uh—” Lance struggles he quickly spits out a cover, “come on Keith! You remember right? That _one_ conversation with Coran where Hunk was all like, “Yeah well nutrition is partial to, uh—um, taste!” And Coran was all red in the face like—”

“Lance.” Keith takes a few steps forwards and settles down beside the blue paladin. Uncomfortable with the situation, Lance leaned away, glaring at Keith and adorning a pronounced frown. “You know it’s alright to be upset right? You shouldn’t bottle it up, it will affect the team. Doing so will cause conflict when we try to form Voltron—”

“That’s just it isn’t it Keith?! It’s _always_ “ _for the team_ ” huh?!” The paladin yells, too late to stop himself. Triumph courses through Lance’s veins as he watches a hurt look form on Keith’s face... that feeling quickly dissipated. Settling back down with his elbows propped up on his thighs, he continues, “I sometimes wonder whether or not you’re capable of feeling—or even _fake_ —a shred of compassion for others.”

“I—” Keith looks taken aback, the look of hurt, insulted, confusion suits him well. The red paladin looks away with his head hung. For a moment Lance felt like apologizing, it was unfair of him to snap on Keith for his behavior and attitude. Even though this boy deserves a royal emotional smackdown.

Resolving to clear the air and forget about this incident, he opens his mouth... only to be cut off by Keith. “I’m not good when it comes to speaking with others about their emotions or inner turmoils.” He meets Lance’s gaze, his large eyes steady and calm now, “What I’m trying to say is, you don’t need to keep this to yourself, the others—uh, me as well—are here to listen to you. Just um... don’t bottle it up? It’s bad for you?”

A chuckle found itself spilling out of Lance’s lips, he snickers, trying to hold it in. “Wh—What?!” Keith shouts, his face dusted red with embarrassment.

“Oh—oh geez! Keith, you’re so bad at this!” Lance pushes out between his pained giggles. An irritated whine sounds beside him, shortly following was a violent shove that knocks Lance against the balusters of the steps. Despite the rough landing, he was still laughing.

“Shut up! I’m trying to be... I’m trying to be...”

“No, no, I understand...” Lance wiped away the tears forming at his eyes, this time, it wasn’t from sadness. “Thanks.” He said meekly.

A small smile forms on Keith’s face and with a shy shuffle he quickly darts forwards and pulls Lance into a hug. His face pressed into the blue paladin’s chest and arms wrapped around his back.

Lance didn’t return the hug, for he was too shocked. After one _excruciating_ long period of awkwardness, in a fluster, he says, “Whoa! Whoa wh-what is this?”

The other paladin quickly bolts away, his hands up in the air in surrender, “I-I! It’s a hug?! Isn’t that what you’re—I didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s fine, that was just a bit sudden.”

Keith’s face was burning, almost _glowing_ in the dark with how red it was. “Oh, I see.” He brings a gloved hand up to gingerly rub the back of his neck and avert his gaze.

Lance took pity on this pathetic paladin and held his arms out to the side. This action catching Keith’s attention, a bashful expression set on his face. The blush that was slowly fading... came back two fold when Lance asks—smiles and all, “Hug?”

And he complied—surprisingly enough. Spreading his own arms and allowing the blue paladin to fit into his grasp, while he, in his. They were about the same height, Keith, if not just shorter by a few unnoticeable—unless scrutinized—measurements. Because of their size and height, Lance found that they fit together in a hug perfectly. He chuckled, how odd, how curious, this situation. One would normally assume that the black paladin, Shiro, would be the one to come and comfort an ally. But no, here, Keith sits with arms wrapped around a homesick rival. The blue paladin would be lying if he said he hated this; the comforting touch of something human.

“Lance?” Keith asks, breaking the peaceful silence. The blue paladin answers with a hum of acknowledgement, indicating for Keith to continue, “Why were you crying?”

“Ugh, this again?”

“I made my speech about you telling me what’s going on up here.” Keith lifts a hand to tap the side of blue paladin’s head. “It’s only fair that you tell me.”

Lance didn’t reply for a few seconds—seconds that felt like _hours_ for the one holding onto him. In a soft tone, he admits, “I miss home.”

“You’ll go back eventually.”

“Yeah, but it won’t be _home_.” Lance slid out of Keith’s grasp, he folded his arms, his eyes wide. “Pidge was talking about this thing called “ _time dilation_ ” and how time _here_ , is different to Earth’s.” His voice felt weak and he felt like vomiting, hunching over he began yelling—uncaring to how his loud voice carries over the castle-ship, “H-How many _years_ do you assume has passed? How many _people_ did I use to know, who are now possibly _dead_?! Keith, my mother, brothers... sisters and even my father! They could all be gone and I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to any of them! My neice, my nephews...” The paladin’s voice fades into silence.

“You... have a very big family.”

“Not _helping_ Keith!” Lace wails, bringing a hand up to hide his shameful face.

“Sorry! I don’t know, Lance. I never had a family, I grew up an orphan so I can’t relate with you.” Keith says casually, causing the blue paladin to scoff. He reaches out for Lance, taking his hand and lowering it to see the sniveling human’s face. The paladin expected to see smug bemusement or possibly judgment, only to be met with a timid smile. “But I do know that you guys are important... um, not just to the mission of saving the universe but... to me as well.”

A silence fell between them, Lance was staring at the red paladin like as if he were seeing an alien for the first time—okay, technically the moment he met Allura wasn’t the _greatest_ first encounter;. Okay, nevermind, simply put, he was staring slack-jawed. “Wh-what?” The red paladin asks, his face heating up.

Lance shakes his head, effectively snapping him out of his stupor. A small smile on his face he says, “Thanks I suppose, that’s... nice to hear.”

Another silence.

“Lance?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry about your family. But, everyone else has families and we... we’re the only ones who can protect them. We can’t be—What’s in the past; what has already _happened_ , is beyond our control. We can’t change it. Time’s always moving so instead of drowning in our mistakes, we should focus on the future.” He pulls the blue paladin into a half hug, resting Lance’s head on his chest and placing his arm over the cuban’s shoulder. This truly was odd, laughable even, how could _Lance_ go to his rival for comfort? He sighs his pathetic sigh and closes eyes. Listening to the sound of Keith’s heart beat in his chest.

“We... could go back at the end of all this to see your family’s graves—”

Lance pats Keith on the face with one hand and shushes him. His voice sullen as he says, “I don’t ever want to see my family’s graves. I disappeared on them. I would never be able to explain why I left. For all they know, I flunked out of Garrison and got myself killed.”

“... I think they would be proud of you; with what you’re doing.” The red paladin, shifts slightly to allow Lance to shuffle closer. Which the other paladin gladly did; if not just to make the position less straining on his body. “Man, if they knew Lance McClain was piloting a Giant Robot Lion through space and crashing it into every known object there is, in a poor attempt to save the universe. I think they would yell at me for lying.” Keith jests.

Lance snorts, if that were to ever happen, he’d be in for an earful about recklessness and responsibility. “I think they would also yell at you to get out of their house and then proceed to disown me!” The two share a laugh that echoes throughout the empty ballroom. This was nice. He removes himself from Keith and laid back against the stairs. His gaze trained onto the red paladin, who in turn, was watching him in mild curiosity.

“You know...” He patted the ground beside him and thankfully, the socially clueless, caught on and laid down next to him. Lance continues, “We should do this more often.”

“Do what?” They turn to face each other.

A smile found it’s way onto Lance’s lips—a genuine one. “Talk! You know, the thing friends or in our case, teammate rivalries do!”

“I don’t think rivals talk to each other.” Keith states dully, his eyebrows furrowed in genuine, _serious_ , confusion.

“Okay then... we... can be teammates. We’ll ensure each other’s survival!” _And do this more often. Maybe... fighting for the chance to have these moments, is worth something?_ He asks no one in particular, he really wishes someone would answer. Confirm that this is all worth it in the end.

Keith hums, it’s a happy sound. “Nah.” He says.

“ _What_ ?!” Lance shot up from his seat and stared down at the grinning paladin with a shocked expression. He whines, “What do you _mean_ , “Nah.”? I’m trying to call a peace treaty here! _Come on_ , Keith, _buddy_.”  

Keith simply shrugs, closing his eyes in the process.

Lance rescinds his offer, and lets out an affronted huff. But otherwise he slowly settles back down on the the steps with the other paladin. Both teens stare up at the intricate designs of the ballroom ceiling. Time runs normally here... they have the time to enjoy this... the boy wonders how home was right now and finds himself being tugged back into the depths again.

“Are you feeling any better?” He didn’t grace him with an answer. It was pretty obvious. Thankfully, at least there’s something here he can hold onto before he’s wracked with currents of tears.

He had sat up when the waves started crashing against his body and leaned himself against the balusters. Keith made no move to follow him up. Instead, he used a few fingers to cling to Lance’s jacket, which still remain on him. In between his unfortunate sniffling and choked back sobs, Lance manages out, “I look forward to our next food fight...” he attempts a chuckle, only for it to come out as a string of weak, hiccuped sobs. “I’m going to destroy you.”

  
Keith shifts beside him and says, “You better hold true to your threats.”


	2. Carpenter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter. Sorry about that.

——————————————————————————————————

**Carpenter**

_noun_

A person who makes and repairs wooden objects and structures.

_verb_

Make by shaping wood.

——————————————————————————————————

“Keith.” Lance calls.

“Keeeiiith.” Lance whines.

“ _Keeeiiith_.” Lance groans.

“Keith, darling, could you stop shoving that stick up your quiznak and perhaps listen to me?” Lance mocks in a falsetto accent.

The paladin currently being harassed, slowly shifts his gaze over to Lance. The “aggressor”, was lying on the couch, batting his lashes with both hands entwined and held over his chest in exaggerated innocence. Keith scrunches up one eye as if to say, “what are you doing?” without the need of moving his lips. However, it does. But instead of that, he says, “You’re saying it grammatically incorrect. How many times will we have to remind you before you fix that habit?”

“Shut your quiznak!” Lance says, holding up a finger. “The way I say, _what_ I say, has nothing to do with what I came here originally to talk about!”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” Keith asks blandly, his attention turning back to the wooden block in his hand.

Just as the paladin was about to shave off more of the white wood. An invasive finger makes it’s way into his view. Lance was pointing at the wooden block. The blue paladin was watching him with a curious glint in his eyes. Mainly because he had never seen Keith carve totems before! He thought the socially awkward, was always about hacking and slicing holograms. This could be a new form of gossip! And god knows they need something new to talk about around here. Something _other_ than Galras and complaints on how a mission went.

“What are you making?” He asks a smile on his face.

Keith blinks, slow and judgmental. He turns back to the block and digs the blade under the flesh of the soft timber. “I’m making nothing.” He simply answers.

“What?! Why? That’s such a waste of material!” Lance jolts upright and scoots closer to the red paladin. Who was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the closed distance. While, yes, a week ago they had one _hell_ of a “ _bonding_ ” moment, they still respected each other’s personal space—okay well, _Keith_ respects it. Lance on the other hand was loosey goosey about their agreement not to bother one another too much.

The red paladin scoots away from Lance, feeling much better with a little space between them. Keith clears his throat before answering, “In our last stop at one of the friendly alien plazas, I bought a knife, I only recently got the time to test it out. To test if the blade is durable.” He shaved off a strip of beautiful white wood shaving before repositioning the blade to do it once more. “The guy who sold me this, demonstrated the blade on some home planet wood. But I was skeptical.” Once again, another strip falls to the ground between Keith’s lap. He lifts the ebony blade with red accents up to eye level. His dull violet eyes narrowed in scrutiny, as he studied the edge for any imperfections.

Finding none, he happily declares, “However, it seems that this is a good purchase—What are you _doing_?!” Keith shrieks the last bit. Tightening his grip on the handle of the knife, lest it falls and digs into Lance’s back.

Yes, _back_.

Because he was laid across his lap, collecting the white shavings on the floor. He didn’t dare push him off either. There was a coffee table right in front of them, and if the blue paladin hit his head and became dimmer than he already was. Voltron would be doomed. So instead he closes his legs and screams at Lance, “Why the quiznak are you picking up that stuff! Why do you need to lie across my lap?!”

Lance removes himself from the flushed and fuming paladin’s lap, completely unaware to Keith’s furious humiliation, as he held up one of the white shavings. “I was curious about the quality of the wood! Did you know you’re wasting perfectly good timber as a _knife test_?” He says, seemingly offended, when Keith really should be the only one with that right at the current moment.

“And I care, because?!”

“Because you could be making something awesome with it!” Lance says, throwing his arms into the air in exasperation. He could not _believe_ the simplistic thoughts that courses through the head of his fellow paladin.

Keith raises  a brow and glances down at the hunk of white wood. It was so... bland and boring, what was so good about it? “Why would I want to make anything? This is just wood.”

“This isn’t “ _just wood_ ”!” Lance exclaims, hopping in his seat in excitement as he points at the shaving in front of him and then at the wooden block on Keith’s lap. “Look at the textures! The color! The scent as well! It’s not so much softwood like Pine, but similar to Aspen! Pure white, yet it isn’t brittle and weak like drift wood. This is the type of wood you take home to meet your parents!”

“I don’t have parents.”

 

...

 

“Still though! You’re wasting great raw material! You should carve something with it!” Lance continues. Disregarding Keith’s comment, not like the red paladin seemed to mind.

Keith cocked his head to the side and lifted up the wooden block, “You can... _make_ something with this?”

“Sure you can, I... used to make small keychain charms for my sisters.”

Keith glances between the wooden block, his knife and Lance’s smiling expression. With a roll of his eye he shoves the “ _raw material_ ” into Lance’s chest. With the most serious expression set hard on his face, he says, “Make me something, I’ll watch.”

“You should learn to say “please” and “thank you”, Keith.” Lance says. Yet despite his words, he happily accepts the challenge and took a hold of the timber pressed against his chest.

“No.” Was Keith's blunt and half-hearted answer. He hands the blade to the blue paladin and sidled up next to him with his eyes on the block of wood.

“Did you know, in my first year of flight school I was known _The Tailor_ for how expertly _thread the needle_ . However! No more is The Tailor! I am...” Lance grins as he began getting to work, quickly making use of the blade and enjoying the way it cut into the wood. “ _The Carpenter_.” He says in a breathy whisper, his eyes shining.

Keith wasn’t listening at all. He blinks before responding with, “Sure.” His eyes still glued onto the timber.

They quickly fell into silence as Lance begins his work. Both boys barely registering anyone passing by as time progressed. Lance thought he saw Allura and Shiro come in at one point but they didn’t bother them if they did so. Pidge came in at one point and sat down with them, her laptop in her lap as she worked. She asked them, “What are you making?”

To which Lance simply replied with, “ _Art_.” And Keith replied with a shrug, while watching the blue paladin work. Eyes never moving from the cuban’s hands.

She left at some undiscerning point in time, most likely called away by Coran or Hunk. If she said a goodbye, neither boys remember it.

Time ticked on. With each careful curve of the knife, each curled shaving that fell to the ground, the design became apparent, Lance was carving a mini statuette of Red.

“Red?” Keith asks, his head resting lazily against Lance’s shoulder. They were sprawled out on the couch, the wood shaving that was once on the floor was now on Lance’s chest and stomach. Not that either of them cares about the mess that this was making.

“Yeah, you said make something _for_ you, so I’m making you a wooden figurine of Red.” Lance replies nonchalantly as he began working on her eyes, carefully scraping them into the wooden head.

Keith hums, his eyebrows knit together as he watches, “Red’s body doesn’t look like that.”

“Uh, excuse me, are _you_ the one making this statuette right now? No? Okay good.” Lance snarks as he began working on her ears. “I’ll add in the small details of her body, to the best of my abilities, when I get to it okay? I haven’t done this in about a year so, I’m trying to relearn a few things.”

The red paladin yawns before nodding his head. “Alright.”

His eyes felt heavy, maybe a few seconds of rest wouldn’t be too bad.

 

✦✦✦

 

Keith awoke to the sound of women giggling. He cracks open one eye to be greeted with the grinning face of Allura and Pidge.

“Oh?” The Altean coos, “He’s awake!”

“Wha?” Keith blearily blinked, his eyes trying to adjust to the brightness of the room. Pidge stood above him with Allura, smiling down at him with a camera in her hands. The red paladin attempted to sit up only for the women to force him back down. “What gives?!” He shouts.

“Shhh,” they put their index finger against his lips and pointed at his stomach. Surely enough, there was indeed a pile of wood shavings on his stomach, courtesy of Lance. And yes, there were a bunch on mice sleeping on top of him. The red paladin groans, he brought one hand up to cover his eyes, only to find that he was holding onto something.

Sure enough there was a completed lion statuette.

“Oh boy, good photos.” Pidge says as she looks through the polaroids.

Allura’s eyes are practically glimmering, she tilts her head to the side and cups a cheek with her palm. “You look so innocent when you’re sleeping Keith!”

“I am anything _but_ that.” The red paladin growls.

“Stop lying!” She giggles, “The mice love you!”

A heavy sigh escapes Keith’s lips as the females started to trade pictures and begin discussing about a corkboard for memorable moments. Which he knows will soon be plastered in pictures of him sleeping, probably accompanied by some embarrassing stickers and words written in green and blue marker. Pidge is not going to let this perfect form of humiliation pass by. He can only hope that Allura will be merciful.

Resigned, Keith lifts the small statue up to block the light. The eyes of the small lion statue seemed to burrow into him, it wasn't made by an _expert_ , there were a few imperfections with mini Red's tail and certain sections of her body was incorrect but, he never expected Lance to remember what his lion looked like from the top of his head. He supposes it’d be rude not to accept this gift. Instead of throwing this away, he might as well put it _somewhere_ in his room.


	3. Fans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late as well.

——————————————————————————————————

Fan

_ noun _

A person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular person or thing.

——————————————————————————————————

Lance couldn’t help but stare. This was... this was a development he would have never expected to occur. His gaze rake over the form of the red paladin, everything was normal. He still wore that dumb crop top jacket and that dumb belt with pouches over his hips.

This was the same old Keith everyone knew. Except for the  _ hair. _

“Holy shit, Hunk is Keith really wearing a ponytail?” Lance leaned closer to the yellow paladin who was busy eating his newest alien cuisine. The larger man looks over at the red paladin who was busy conversing with Allura. After a second of scrutinizing Keith’s appearance, he shrugs and returns to eating.

“I never notice when the others change their appearance. Besides, Keith tying up his hair isn’t  _ that _ big of a change.” Hunk says through a mouthful of strange ingredients—at least it smells better than anything Coran makes. “Why is it a big deal to you?

Why  _ does _ it matter? Lance couldn’t quite pinpoint the reasoning. “Be-Because Keith doesn’t have his mullet hair!” The blue paladin threw his arms up and with a red face, exclaims, “How am I supposed to make fun of him now!?”

“Wow, if that’s the case I should wear my hair up like this more often.” The red paladin says in a blank and dull tone. He and Allura approach them, him with arms crossed over his chest, and her with her fingers entwined and arms hanging loosely.

“What!?” Lance flails his hands around and turns away, averting his gaze from the korean. “That’s a horrible idea! Stop it with—” Lance gestures to Keith’s body as a whole, causing the red paladin to raise an incredulous brow. “ _ That _ ! It looks  _ ridiculous _ .”

Allura glances at Keith and chuckles, “I think he looks quite handsome with his hair up.”

Keith turns to Allura and slowly says a pleased, “ _ Thank you _ .” He sighs, “I’m going to go to my room, I’m busy.” With that he quickly made his exit. His ponytail bobbing with his movements.

Lance was absolutely  _ discombobulated _ , he was sunken down in the couch with his arms held up in the air and face glowing red.

Pidge enters the room the moment Keith leaves. Her gaze follows Keith as he turns a corner before moving to Lance who was  _ still _ sitting in a ridiculous position. The green paladin raises a brow before saying, “I don’t want to know.” And as quickly as she entered, she left.

Leaving Lance with an amused Allura and a... still-eating-his-weird-alien-grub Hunk. The princess laughs her ladylike laugh, before jesting, “I know you like his hair up like that.”

“I just think it looks weird on  _ him _ ! I like it on girls!” Lance shouts, finally have recovered he folds his arms over his chest and sunk further into the comforts of the couch. Some wood shavings that were hidden from the clean up a two days ago, started resurfacing from the crack of the seat.

Hunk swallows another bite of his meal and points his spoon at the blue paladin. An unidentified clear sauce drips off of the metal utensil, thick like honey, causing Lance to reel away from the object. “If you’re interested in a cool female character with a ponytail, Pidge gave me a translated Altean book recently.” He shrugs and scoops another mouthful of whatever-the-hell-that is. “It’s a romance and I’m not interested in that stuff. You can have it if you’d like, it’d be a good past time for you when you’re doing your daily morning rituals.”

“Good idea! I’d love to see it!”

“A-Ah um, wait,” Allura clears her throat, her face was tinted a lovely shade of red as she shyly asks, “what is it called? I think I might... have read it before.”

Hunk gasps, “You  _ read _ these books? Allura!”

“I was curious! Besides it’s little...  _ imperfections _ , the series is good. I am not sure how well Altean translates into English, but it’s worth the read.” She brushes a loose strand of hair out of her face. Her eyes finding purchase on Hunk’s culinary creation as she found the intense stare Lance was giving her, a tad unsettling.

“Hunk. I want that book.”

“Yeah, no problem man! I’ll send the pdf to you. Oh, I do have to warn you though, if this turns out like the last time you fell in love with a series, I’m not talking to you until your phase is over.”

 

✦✦✦

 

It’s late into the metaphorical, ship controlled night. All is peaceful. The hallway lights are dimmed and silence engulfed the ship, nothing but the purrs of the machinery within the walls. It was a familiar setting, dark, quiet, somber the ship was.

Only difference is the blue paladin, who was still sitting on the couch of the general living quarters. Eyes glued on a blue hologram, tired lines forming under his wide unblinking eyes. Every now and then he would lift a hand to flick the screen and scroll further down the document that had captured his attention.

His mouth moves, wordlessly, as he read the story.

The door to the room slides open. The blue paladin does not take note of this.

At the door stood Keith, in only his t-shirt and black pants. His hair—which was still tied in a ponytail—was a mess, strands flew everywhere and circled his face, loose strands curling around his cheeks. Those steady violet eyes, find their way to Lance, who still has not noticed the red paladin. “Lance, it’s way late into the night, what are you doing?” Keith asks, approaching the blue paladin.

His voice effectively snaps Lance out of his daze, he looks up at Keith, then at the screen, then back up at Keith. Opening his mouth, his words came out like a waterfall, “ _Oh my god_ , Keith! This story is so infuriating! I can’t believe that the main pairing is Eliza and Alfred, they’re supposed to by _rivals—enemies_ even! In the first seven chapters it has established that the two _greatly_ dislikes one another and even _after_ the allegiance of their sovereign nations, they still can’t get along! They fight, they bicker, and yet the writer thinks it’s a good idea to put them together on a team?! What are they thinking?! Okay, around chapter ten is when they start being all touchy feely with one another—yeah that’s right! Don’t think that _I_ , Lance McClain, _slayer of hearts_ , don’t see that! I see that line about Alfred sneaking an arm around her waist when it was completely unneeded! That guy is a sleazeball! Eliza is pure! She deserves someone better that _you_ , _Alfred_.”

“Uh.” Keith glances at the holo-screen and then back to Lance’s furious expression before settling down beside him, “I didn’t understand a single word that came out of your mouth.” Lance opens his mouth once more, ready to explain, only for Keith to cut him off, “And I really don’t  _ want  _ to know why you’re so upset with this book. So, I’m just going to do what I came to do and then leave.”

Lance’s mouth gapes, he flung his hands into the air and exclaims, “What! Wow, fine! You can leave and ignore me, not like you don’t do that already on a daily basis.”

“I can go right now.”

“Oh yeah? I dare you to leave, you’d just be running away. Running away like the mull—” in the few minutes Keith has been in here, Lance had not registered his appearance. It was... not quite a mess, there was something organized about it, something deliberate. His hair was tied back in his tiny little ponytail, loose strands strewn all over his face and sticking out around the side. “You still have... ponytail.”

Keith raises an eyebrow—good god this guy sure has  _ eyebrows _ . “Yeah.” He simply answers, a tad confused as to why that was brought up again. Shaking his head and dismissing his thoughts he says, “Anyways. I want to talk about the wooden statuette.”

“Oh? That thing? Did I make a mistake?”

Keith met the blue paladin with a hard gaze. “Yes, you did. A few flaws on the tail and the appearance of her body is off—”

“Okay! No need to go on.” Lance cuts him off, lifting his hand up in surrender to his onslaught of criticism. He slumps back against the couch, dismissing the holographic screen. He's pouting.“Wow, I didn’t know I made that many mistakes.”

It was an... unusual experience for Keith, he expected an outburst in where they can start bantering and bickering like normal. Not... well this upset log, hogging the common area’s couch. He sighs and settles back against the cushions saying, “I didn’t expect you to remember her appearance  _ at all _ .”

Those dark blue—practically black in this dim lighting—pinpricks glance at red paladin and then quickly dart away. Lance’s eyes close and his brows knit together, he didn’t think he did  _ that _ horrible of a job. “You really think lowly of me, huh?”

“I mean you’re a horrible pilot, with a huge ego and sometimes you’re extremely frustrating—” the red paladin quickly catches himself. He breathes a sigh, long and frustrated, a hand goes up to pinch the bridge of his nose. All those words, were not the words he was looking for. Flinging his arms forwards, he exclaims, “No! What I mean, is that I’m  _ impressed _ that you remember  _ anything _ about Red! She’s not even your lion! It’s impressive, Lance!”

Keith watches with a bashful from and a blush as Lance’s face lights up. The blue paladin is wearing this  _ dumb  _ and ridiculous smile that makes him look like a child. “You really think so?” Keith’s frown deepens and he has to look away or else his entire face will start to glow. Complimenting people, why must that be so hard? Lance outright  _ coos _ , “ _ Aww _ ! You really do! I can see through that face you’re making!”

The red paladin throws his arms in the air at the other’s words, he resists the urge to cover his ears and walk out. “This isn’t what I came for!” He shouts. After a moment of staring and contemplating his previous actions and what he was to do next. Keith settles back down and digs something out of his pocket. “Ugh, here, just... take it.” He grumbles as he shoves it into Lance’s chest.

Their hands brush over one another as Lance takes a hold if the object. The action— _ sensation _ —made Keith rip his hands away as the blue paladin inspected the palm sized creation. 

It was wooden, of course, the object was round and carved not  _ expertly _ , okay, that’s putting it lightly. The cuts and shavings were crude and forced, like as if someone let a stray cat go ham on it. There were ridges, rough and angular but, considering  _ what _ it was, that little flaw was alright. And  _ what  _ it was; was a wooden head of Blue, Lance’s lion. 

The blue paladin stared at the gift, his face blank and serious for once. “Keith... what is this?”

The red paladin was avoiding eye contact. He disliked the sound of Lance’s monotone voice. The cuban was surely judging his handiwork. “What do you think it is?” He says, trying to make his voice as mono as he possibly could.

“A gift!” Lance cries out happily, “From a fan of my work!” Keith’s eyes widen and he proceeds to give Lance this  _ look _ of pure judgement, filled with incredulous thoughts such as  _ “excuse me what?”  _ He felt like saying something, but the moment he opens his mouth, a hand finds way to rest against his lips and he promptly, shuts up as Lance goes on, “Oh man Keith, If you like what I make and would like to learn, you could have just told me!”

For a while, Keith simply stares at this idiotic boy whose eyes seem to glimmer with whatever thought was going on up in his head. Surely thoughts of grandeur or just happy that he has something to one up the red paladin. Furrowing his brow, he smacks the intruding hand away from his face and said, “Don’t touch me, also don’t patronize me. I can learn perfectly fine on my own.”

“So do you want to watch me make more next time?” Lance asks happily, adding on, “I could make something for the others! Maybe even sell them the next time we find a friendly alien planet with an economy!”

Keith’s eyes avert Lance’s gaze, he stills and eyes the ground before saying, “If you do, next time I want to watch again. Maybe, we could... work on something together? It’d be good for...” Keith pauses, he tilts his head to the side and Lance watches as the lose strands of his hair fall out of his hair tie. The blue paladin realises that he was eyeing Keith’s neck and  _ ho-boy  _ that’s not good.  _ Bad thoughts bad, he’s a male! _ He reprimands himself as Keith finally says, “Building trust and teamwork?”

Lance snaps out of his daze and begins erratically nodding his head. He gives Keith a thumbs up before hurriedly saying, “yeah sure! No problem Keith ol’buddy!” He smacks the red paladin in the back—probably a  _ tad bit  _ too forcefully, causing Keith to lurch forwards. If he’s upset he shows no sign of it. Instead of fuming at him for being too rough. He laughs. Jovial and lighthearted, it was doing this to Lance’s head.

“Ah, well, since I’m no longer working on that little project, I guess I no longer need to wear this.” Keith says as he raises a hand and touched the loose ponytail. He grips the band and began pulling, and yet, despite the dim lighting, Lance lay witness to each ebony strand fall around the red paladin’s neck.

He crosses he legs and pulls up his hologram screen. With a clear of his throat he says, “now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to continue reading.”

“Is that Allura’s weird romance novel?” Keith asks, back to normal, albeit his hair was quite disheveled.

Lance feels much better and could reply normally with, “Yeah! You want it? I can send you the pdf file and you could read it on your holo-communicator.”

Keith nods his head. With a yawn, he waves Lance a farewell. “Okay, well, I’m not going to stay up and read. Send me the pdf and I’ll look over it when I’m not busy.”

A smile forms on the lips of the blue paladin as he says, “Alright! But don’t expect me to do you favors for free. The wooden lion head isn’t gonna cut it Keith.”

“That was payment for my statuette. I don't know what you can do with your’s but, you can throw it away for all I care.” Keith says before heading towards the room’s exit.

“O-oh yeah?! Maybe I will!” He shouts after the disappearing body. Keith shrugs as the door closes with a small “pap” and Lance was left alone in the darkness. It was getting cold, maybe he should read this in bed.

With a sigh, he stood up, his eyes making contact with the wooden head. Now, he wouldn’t actually throw it away? He of all people should know the struggle of making something like this. For Keith’s first time, also being inspired by  _ him _ of all people. This was a little memoir. 

Picking it up he contemplated what he could do with this. It’s not really a statuette that you could place in your room. Lance also doesn’t have a keychain for it... he supposes it’d look cute hanging from a the rear view mirror of a car. But, he doesn’t have a car.

...

_ Wait. _

  
A brilliant idea pops into his head. The next time Keith calls him from Blue, he’s going to be so surprised! With a giggle to himself. Lance began heading for the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance is a Dork.  
> Keith is pretty with his hair up.
> 
> Personally though, I do have a thing for guys with cute little ponytails... so I might be projecting a bit. The thing with the book he's reading does carry onto the next chapter, which I'll hopefully post tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> November Prompts  
> "✦" means "possible smut chapter" future reference for those who don't want to read porn. It's completely skipable. Also check the chapter notes to see if it is a smut chapter, I could change these in the future.  
> ———————————————————  
> 1\. Time like liquid  
> 2\. Carpenter  
> 3\. Fans  
> 4\. Power point  
> 5\. In lust ✦  
> 6\. Beaten  
> 7\. Aloe vera  
> 8\. Pin cushion ✦  
> 9\. Alleviate ✦  
> 10\. What about it?  
> 11\. Near miss  
> 12\. Archery  
> 13\. Rocket ship  
> 14\. Foundation ✦  
> 15\. Ants  
> 16\. Purse  
> 17\. Gold Star  
> 18\. False smiles ✦  
> 19\. Negative  
> 20\. Brush stroke ✦  
> 21\. Leather bound ✦  
> 22\. Hockey  
> 23\. Who are you?  
> 24\. Green leaf  
> 25\. Boiling water ✦  
> 26\. Geranium ✦  
> 27\. In a flash  
> 28\. Negotiable ✦  
> 30\. Disc


End file.
